Whenever you have a pet, emergencies are bound to come up. For a group who are perpetually low income, individuals employed in the arts, extra funds for emergencies can be hard to come by. The Animal Care for Artists Initiative provides funding to help artists cover the cost of medical care for their animal companions. This story on their website presents just one example of the animals and their artist owners that are reaching out to ACFA for support:

Olga the dog is 7 years old and needs routine care and monitoring of her heart murmur. She was discovered with cage sores and was mainly used for excessive breeding and then probably dumped. Her owners are a Los Angeles based actress and musician/music teacher who recently lost his job teaching music due to budget cuts. They have devoted their lives to the arts and this is our chance to show them support!

Animal Care for Artists Initiative is a tax-exempt non profit organization and is funded completely by donations. To find out more information about ACFA and how to donate, you can visit their website here. They also have set up a Facebook page for more up-to-date information on events and animals in need.

Last week the Los Angeles Times Unleashed blog reported that LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has appointed Brenda Barnette as LA Animal Services General Manager replacing the inept Ed Boks. After a year of searching and various campaigns supporting no kill candidates by local organizations, the appointment of Brenda Barnette had many people scrambling to find out any information they could about the new appointee. ADL-LA has a fantastic write-up commending Mayor Villaraigosa on his appointment stating:

From all our research, which we began right after we heard that Barnette was going to be appointed by the Mayor in an LA Times blog last Wednesday night, we have learned that not only did Jim Bickhart, the Mayor, Jimmy Blackman and anyone else who was behind her appointment make the most intelligent choice, but it’s a monumental choice that will finally accelerate the LAAS shelters from being evil killing dungeons into the beacon of a life affirming sheltering system.

I would highly suggest reading the full article on ADL-LA’s homepage here.

It is extremely exciting that LA Animal Services will finally have a progressive and innovative leader at the helm, truly steering Los Angeles towards being the first major metropolitan ‘No-Kill’ city in the United States.

Starting today through Father’s Day, LA Animal Services is offering a special discount adoption special for both cats and dogs. You can visit any of the 6 local shelters where they have reduced the adoption price of cats to $50.50 and dogs to $78.50. The discounted adoption fees include spay/neutering, microchipping, and a license for your pet. Most vets will also give your new pet an initial checkup completely free if you tell them they are from LA Animal Services. You can click on the image to view the flyer for all the details.

If you live in Los Angeles (or anywhere close by) there are two screening events that you MUST attend.

First is the Skin Trade Public Premiere and Benefit on Thursday, June 10th. 3 years in the making, Skin Trade premiered to a limited audience back in February, but now ARME and the producers are having their official public premiere at The Majestic Crest Theatre located at 1262 Westwood Boulevard. Shannon Keith, the director, will be present for a Q&A after the screening. They will also be having a silent auction at the event with  proceeds benefiting ARME – Animal Rescue Media & Education to promote this film as well as preparing funds for their next film. Tickets are $20 and can be purchased here.

The following week is Bold Native premiere week. On Wednesday, June 16th, the Majestic Crest Theater will be hosting the World Premiere of the film.  With both the filmmakers and cast in attendance, the public will get the first glimpse of the story of an animal liberator wanted for domestic terrorism who emerges from the underground to coordinate a nationwide action. Tickets for the premiere are $12.50 and can be purchased here. Later that week, you can join the filmmakers and watch Bold Native under the stars at the top of the Hollywood Hills. A free screening will be held at Tree People Outdoor Amphitheater on Friday, June 18 at 8:15. You can reserve your seats by RSVPing for the event here.

If you don’t happen to be in Los Angeles, you’re still in luck. Both films have upcoming screenings around the country. To view Skin Trade’s upcoming national screenings, click here. For Bold Native’s upcoming screening schedule click here.

The WorldFest 2010 Earth Day Festival is happening this upcoming Sunday at Woodley Park in Encino, CA. WorldFest is a solar-powered celebration of music, the environment, animals and humanity, but what the people that I know really go for is the vegan food, vegan food and more vegan food. The Vegan Collection will be there selling our shoes, belts, wallets and new shirts alongside over 100 other vendors and exhibitors selling their food and wares. This is a must attend for any SoCal vegan, so if you’re there, stop by our booth and say “Hi.” Here are all the details:

WorldFest
Sunday, May 16 – 10:30 AM – 7:00 PM

WorldFest is located at the Northern end of Woodley Park in Encino, CA.
Adults are $7, Kids & Seniors are $5.
Parking is $5.
6350 Woodley Ave.
Encino, CA

Some of the best bakers in all of Los Angeles have teamed up to support ARME (Animal Rescue Media Education) this Saturday. From 11:00 AM – 5:00 PM on May 1st, ARME will be set up in front of Against the Stream Buddhist Meditation Society located at 4300 Melrose Ave. (one block east of Heliotrope, a few blocks west of Vermont). They will be featuring items from Babycakes, Sunpower Natural, Sprinkles, Many’s Bakery, The Blissful Chef and many more. If you’re not familiar with ARME, they are the folks behind Uncaged Films (Skin Trade, Behind The Mask) as well a rescue organization that has found homes for many unwanted, homeless animals over the past several years. Check out their Facebook Event page for even more details. We’ll see you there!

It’s warming up (I know, I know, it’s raining here today, but “in general”) so that means it’s about to be kitten and puppy season. LA Animal Services is calling on volunteers to become a foster parent to kittens and puppies without a mother and too young to survive on their own.

If you don’t have the time or space to be foster, they are also looking for donations of the following items:

• - KMR and Esbilac (neonate, formula)
• - 4 and 2 oz Nurser Bottles
• - Small Scales (to weigh babies)
• - Litter boxes
• - Blankets
• - Wee Wee Pads
• - Litter
• - Heating Pads
• - Small Carriers
• - Shallow food or water dishes
• - Newspaper

The best way to start is to visit their website at www.laanimalservices.com or to contact an LA Animal Services representative at 888-452-7381.

Last month, LA Animal Services announced their new Kennel Sponsorship program at all 6 service facilities. For a $300 tax deductible donation, animal lovers can sponsor a dog run, cat cage, bird cage or rabbit cage at any one of the City’s animal care centers. The sponsor gets their name engraved in a plaque that will hang on the cage for a year and at the end of the year’s sponsorship, the sponsorship can either be renewed or the plaque will be returned to the donor. Most importantly, all donations will directly benefit the animals and will not be used for administrative costs. As most people know, one of the hardest hit areas with Los Angeles’ current budget crisis has been LA Animal Services. I was pretty skeptical of the program until I actually spoke with someone who assured me that funds will be used for animal care, not salaries or general office expenses. You can click on the image to view the flyer for more details.

From April 15th through April 18th, Cease Animal Torture (CAT) is sponsoring the Animal Liberation Forum 2010. This completely free event is happening at California State University Long Beach and is one of the only AR conferences that I know of that is dedicated to pushing the message of abolition of animal exploitation and not settling for animal welfare. Over the course of the four days, there will be an array of speakers who will share their perspectives, tactics, strategies and experiences through panels, workshops, films and discussion. There will also be organizations, including The Vegan Collection, tabling with literature, cruelty-free merch and more!

You can visit the website here for all the details or see a list of this year’s speakers below:

• - Leo Flowers
• - Prabhat Gautam
• - Carol Glasser
• - Kali Grech
• - Denis H. Hennelly
• - Lorri Houston
• - John Johnson
• - Shannon Keith
• - Greg Kelly
• - Marti Kheel
• - Dina Kourda
• - Bob Linden
• - Anthony Marr
• - Jason Miller
• - Mardhavi Rodrigo
• - Matt Rossell
• - Moses Seenarine
• - Stewart Solomon
• - Casey Suchan
• - Peter Young

This past Sunday we headed over to visit Los Angeles’ premiere non-profit organization dedicated to saving homeless and abandoned cats and kittens, Kitten Rescue. Since the day we started The Vegan Collection, Kitten Rescue has been one of the 4 charities that we give a portion of our profit to support, yet we had never actually visited their facility. When we heard that they would be opening their doors for their Second Annual “St. Catrick’s Day” celebration, we jumped at the chance to see the inner-workings of this fantastic group.

When we got to the nondescript building in Atwater Village we were greeted by a slew of friendly volunteers, one of which was kind enough to spend about 15 minutes giving us a full tour of their facilities and some background information about the organization. Currently Kitten Rescue has 157 cats at their location with another 1,500+ being fostered by volunteers and organizations throughout Los Angeles. Of the 157 cats at their location, most are available for adoption, but a handful of older and feral cats which would generally not get adopted in the shelter system, have found a forever home at the facility. They are a completely volunteer run organization with one paid employee who manages the facility.

The thing that struck us the most was how well organized this volunteer run no-kill shelter operates. The task of keeping track of over 1,500 animals while still maintaining a safe environment for these animals is unfathomable. And the fact that Kitten Rescue does it all on a shoe-string budget is a testament to how far this organization stretches it’s donation dollars.

Even though we weren’t able to stick around for the green beer and vegan nachos, we had a fantastic time chatting with the volunteers and finally meeting some of the people we had previously only talked to via e-mail. Kitten Rescue only allows the public to come in and explore their facility once a year, but they are always looking for more volunteers to socialize the animals or foster families to care for animals waiting for their FURRever homes. You can find out all the information about volunteering for Kitten Rescue on their website here, or throw them a few bucks on their donation page here.

Photos graciously provided by Kitten Rescue volunteer Natalie N.